Messi finally makes peace with Argentina

By Sebastian Fest Jan 10, 2012, 18:20 GMT

Zurich - For years, the 12-hour flight between Spain and Argentina was torture for Lionel Messi, who could not understand why his native country was always giving him the cold shoulder.

But now Messi - crowned as the World Player of the Year for the third successive time on Monday - finally feels at peace with Argentina.

'Today my country feels proud of me like they had never shown it and made me feel it before. This is something really big for me, something I am grateful for,' Messi said in Zurich shortly before receiving the trophy.

He spoke with a clarity and emphasis that do not usually characterize the 24-year-old Barcelona footballer.

Were his feelings related to recently having been elected the best athlete of 2011 in Argentina, in addition to having been made an honorary citizen of Rosario, the country's third-largest city, where he was born?

Yes, Messi later said.

'The prizes they gave me, the recognition by my country, the love of my people ... All that was something special.'

Messi may not talk a lot and he may appear absent-minded at times, but his mind registers everything.

He understands Catalan as well as Spanish, and has all the figures in his head, ranging from the percentage of votes he received to win his first World Player title two years ago, to the achievements of his closest rivals.

And he certainly did not fail to notice how, a year ago, Argentine field hockey national team captain Luciana Aymar was given the athlete of the year title.

Arguably the world's most adulated footballer was regarded as just another athlete in his own country.

Some have even accused him of playing only for money, and he has been called a 'traitor' for scoring a goal in a FIFA Club World Cup final against the Argentine team Estudiantes La Plata in 2009.

'Can't you tell Maradona that he must treat him better?' a source at Barcelona once said, after seeing him persistently downcast after World Cup qualifying matches with the Argentine national teams coached by Alfio Basile and Diego Maradona.

Some of Messi's countrymen did not even want to recognize him as Argentinian, although many observers note that he has retained his national identity better than any other Argentine footballer who plays abroad.

But something changed during Messi's stay in Argentina in December. Many remembered his contribution to a win against Colombia in a World Cup qualifier in November.

And Messi himself was touched by the official recognition he received in his country, as well as the affection he was shown by residents of Rosario, the city he left at the age of 13 to seek in Barcelona the football fame he could not achieve in Argentina.

'Leo is feeling much better,' Xavi Hernandez, who came third in the World Player contest, told dpa.

Messi's colleague and friend Xavi believes he has experienced a change in recent times in his relationship with the Argentine national team and with Argentinians themselves.

'It is important to feel loved. He now feels more loved by Argentine fans, that is reflected in the way he plays.'

After helping Barcelona win 13 of the last 16 titles they played for, Messi now wants to give Argentina its first World Cup since 1986, when Maradona led the team on the pitch.

'There is still a long way to go to Brazil 2014,' Messi said in Zurich, giving a crude description of the Argentine team now coached by Alejandro Sabella.

'Today's reality is that we are very far from being world champions, there are many teams ahead of us,' Messi said.

That does not mean Messi is not thinking about Brazil 2014. Winning there would be 'something spectacular,' he says with a dreamy look in his eyes.

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